Simply
by alaricnomad
Summary: LucasPeyton. Simplicity befitted them. ONESHOT.


**Simply**

By Alaricnomad

Things with Peyton had always been simple.

It was strange, how that statement in itself was like a paradox, or from first impression to seem like a blatant lie, considering their history- but it was there, clear-cut and precise, that beneath all the bravado and the drama, the emotional entanglements and the longing and the heartache- that spark, that connection, that thing that drew them together on a level no other could compare to.

That was simple.

Peyton herself was complicated, especially in the beginning. Layer after layer of defenses that shut him out, kept him at a distance, and yet time after time, he slipped beneath them so easily…so simply. He was the only one who possessed the kind of power over her, simply because he was Lucas.

With Peyton, he did not need constant reassuring, he did not need dramatic love confessions, and he did not need to prove himself again and again. Things were so much simpler than that.

She did not need expensive gifts or exotic dates, she did not need romantic gestures or elaborate dinners. She did not really need anything, except for him to be with her.

He did them anyway.

Simplicity was his forte, and he gifted her with it. Small notes slipped to her between classes, little reminders to let her know he was thinking about her- the occasional new album that magically popped up in her collection, just because he saw it and thought she'd like it- the flower in hand every time he appeared at her doorstep in the middle of the night. Simple things, and she loved him for it.

It all should have been hard, it all should have been forbidden, taboo, too entangled and complicated for them to even try, but it wasn't. In the end, it was really just…

Simple.

They should have been some infidelity, some illicit love affair. When she watched him walk through the hallways at school, her best friend on his arm, it should never have been her he stared at so intensely, it should not have been him that had the favor of her beautiful smile.

When he came to her in the night, the way he kissed her, the way he touched her, there was nothing intricately poetic or melodramatic about it, it was simply him and the love she felt, the way he could make her feel.

The austerity or the intricacy of their affair really meant nothing in those moments as their lips collided, hands pushed away the clothes serving as the barriers to glorious, naked skin. It meant nothing…it meant everything that he knew just the right place at her collarbone to drag his lips and have her shivering with desire, just the right way to have her screaming his name as he moved inside her. It meant everything that she knew every contour of his body, the sensitivity of the place just behind his ear, the jagged scar on his hip leftover from a childhood accident.

There should have been guilt and damnation as they lay together in an entanglement of naked skin and entwined limbs, his arms strong around her as she lay a head against his chest, the steady cadence of his heartbeat drowning out the sound of his cell phone ringing somewhere on the floor.

But it wasn't. It was really, rather simple, in the way his eyes softened as he smiled down at her, brushed back her hair to press a light kiss to her forehead. It was simple as she nestled against him, playing with their laced fingers as she answered his quiet questions and told him about her day.

And he listened attentively, offering the occasional comment or gesture when appropriate, just watching the delighted animation of her face, the warmth of her smile as she told him about her latest project for the magazine, her shift at TRIC, the resemblance that afternoon's cheer practice had to a boot camp.

She teased him slyly about the red rose she found that morning at her locker, and he denied his involvement, though he could not stop a goofy, broad smile that broke out over his face as he dug his fingers in her ribs, taking his revenge as he tickled her and pressed her back against the bed.

It was rather simple, inevitable, almost magnetic as he looked down at her, saw bright eyes and flushed cheeks, almost mesmerized as her lips parted with each breath and her hand carefully reached behind his neck, drawing his mouth back to hers. And as he kissed her, his hands tracing over the familiar curves of her body, the world melted away around him, and there was nothing left but her. She was simply Peyton…simply everything in his world.

Simplicity befitted them, and they couldn't have asked for more.


End file.
